Reelin' 'em In

Lures Return To Entice Office Brokers, Tenants

December 17, 1995|By Claudia H. Deutsch, New York Times News Service.

NEW YORK — A toy helicopter, complete with working launch pad, that says: "Financial Square: The only way to get better views is by taking one of these." With it, an invitation to a cocktail party at Financial Square, the big building on South Street that the Paramount Group bought in March.

An Ebbets Field music box that plays "Take me out to the ball game." Inside, lots of peanuts, and a ticket to a breakfast at 888 Seventh Avenue, the building at 57th Street that is home to the Brooklyn Diner, featuring former Brooklyn Dodgers Ralph Branca and Johnny Podres, and former New York Giant Bobby Thomson.

A water bottle decorated with a map of the Grand Central area, highlighting the Graybar Building--420 Lexington Ave., near 44th Street. A few weeks later, a plastic canister of shredded "money" and a scroll that reads, "Are real estate costs shredding your corporate capital?" Only then, the un-gimmicky data package arrives.

"We had to stand out from all the fliers that cross a broker's desk," said James P. Quinn, an associate director at Cushman & Wakefield who has 84,000 square feet of space to sublet in the Graybar Building.

Fall has traditionally been silly season for marketing space, a time when landlords vie for the most lavish, creative or hilarious way to catch a prospective tenant's eye. But for much of the 1990s, real estate people were not in a partying mood. Now, with the market sputtering toward recovery, the hype is back.

"I'm certain that I'm getting a lot more premiums and invitations than ever before," said Gregg Lorberbaum, a principal at the Peter R. Friedman brokerage.

That is no false impression. "We're handling more promotions now than any other year this decade," said Sherman Boxer, president of Sherman Advertising Associates, a real estate marketing firm.

But do parties and gifts rent space?

No one knows for sure. Brokers, of course, insist that they will take tenants to great space regardless of whether they are feted. But many landlords worry that, without something to trigger their memories, brokers will forget how great their space is.

"Parties let us refresh our relationships with the brokers, and freshen their memory about our buildings," said Roger S. Newman, a senior vice president of the Paramount Group, which owns Financial Square, 888 Seventh and 1633 Broadway, at 50th Street (which plans a lunch next month).

And brokers do turn out in droves for parties. Nearly 400 people turned out for the Brooklyn Dodgers breakfast, and landlords say they routinely get more than 150 people at mundane lunches. Granted, the brokers may be there to network, to job hunt or to win a great door prize. Or their presence may be a form of collegial reciprocity -- an "I-turned-out-for-your-party-you-turn-ou t-for-mine" approach.

But once they are there, they are captive audiences to presentations by landlords, to accolades from satisfied tenants, or to the great views that may surround the space.

That is why Graham E. Henley, general manager of the State Bank of New South Wales, will raffle off several laptop computers at a broker party he is throwing to find a sublessee for his expensive space at 645 Fifth Avenue, at 51st Street.

"People may come for a chance at the laptop, but they'll circulate through the space, see our spectacular views, and maybe we'll sublet quicker," he said.

Edward Goldman, a managing director of the Edward S. Gordon Co. who handles leasing for 888 Seventh, is sure that one pending deal, for 75,000 square feet, came about because the tenant's broker chatted with Newman at the baseball party.

"It makes such a difference when a broker meets and trusts the owner," he said.

Few leasing agents or owners suggest that a big bash or a great gift can push bad space. But many believe it can accelerate the leasing process for good space. And that is no small thing. A good party, with nice gifts, can run $25,000 or more. But 10,000 square feet, going for an annual rent of, say, $30 a foot, brings that much in each month. Put a tenant into that space just one month sooner, and most promotions have paid for themselves. Put a tenant into a bigger space, and the payback is tremendous.

Such cost/benefit analyses have wooed some normally low-profile landlords to the party pack. A few months ago the World Trade Center, which has 600,000 square feet to let, held a $10,000 broker's lunch, its first in recent memory. Charles J. Maikish, the center's director, wanted brokers to see the spiffed up retail mall, and hear tenants attest to how quickly the center cuts deals.

Maikish believes that one large deal is pending because "that luncheon turned the broker's head" about the center. "A lot of brokers don't realize how flexible we have become," he said.